It's a very good point to emphasize that interactive digital learning is in many ways what lifelong learning looks like this days, so we need to start preparing students for that process.

Excellent! Ha!

It's so trendy now to talk about "lifelong learning", but there is definite truth to the idea that we never really stop learning just because we have finished our formal education. I'd bet most people don't even realize that they are learning even just by catching the news.

The idea of synthesis between the different ideas about instruction is probably the right way to go. All constructivist all the time might not work in every situation, just as all traditional all the time does not work in every situation either.

Using social media in this way can be very beneficial when they are going to be distracted by something anyone. It can be an important teachable moment. I think it's also important not to dwell too much and model the process of healthy concern and interest while still living life.

This had never occurred to me, but it makes sense.

I really like this statement. It's important not to get lost in the flash and really find ways that technology can help teaching. I've overheard teens rolling their eyes and saying "Ms. _____ made us read blogs today. I bet she heard about that at some teacher meeting." They know when they are being force fed something without real value.

People sometimes assume that because you have a blog then you must be some kind of techy genius, but that's not the case. It's important that we break down the idea that only Comp Sci teachers can use technology.

One way that people need to change their thinking about the Internet is the idea that surfing around is inherently time wasting. Reading articles or posts can be just as educational as more traditional forms of learning. My Mom and Dad get their news from the newspaper, and I get mine from the Internet. We end up in the same place knowledge-wise, but we just get there differently.

Standardized education results in standardized minds. School settings are important for teaching social skills and how to exist with other people in a society, but it also teaches how not to upset the social order.

I was just reading about this period in educational history in the curriculum overview class, and what I thought of as a recent reform in schools of using corporate models is not recent at all. People were trying to use industrial priorities and methods to change education a hundred years ago! Maybe it's important to think of digital education as an evolution of mechanized education, just a computer is a digital evolution of a mechanical adding machine.

I think technology especially is learned best through just playing with it. I always tell people who are uncomfortable with new software or electronic searching to just sit down and play with it. Time and use creates a sense of comfort, and I think using the word play changes the way that they think about their learning experience.

As a librarian, people expect me to slam Wikipedia and other such crowd sourced materials, but I don't. Use the references at the bottom of the page, people! Don't cite the Wikipedia article; click through to the actual source and use that. They are finding your research for you.

I like the thought of "augment[ing] the knowledge dynamics of a region". I think it acknowledges that technology is a great tool, but that it isn't the end all and be all. It adds to the learning experience in a way that can be individual and powerful.